Yesterday, the administration announced that it would cut red tape on the federal permitting and review process for infrastructure projects, and it had the audacity to include pipelines:

The Administration’s infrastructure permitting initiative has shown that we can cut federal review and permitting timelines for construction projects such as highway, bridges, railways, ports, waterways, pipelines, and renewable energy by several months to several years.  This modernization effort will achieve time savings of 50 percent in the federal permitting and review process, while ensuring projects create better outcomes for communities and the environment.

Pipelines.

The White House wants to make it easier to permit pipelines.

Really.

Let me repeat: The White House wants to make it easier to get a permit to build a pipeline.

Not harder, easier.

I am not making this up.

Does anyone at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue understand the irony? It’s been over four years since TransCanada applied for a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline, and it still awaits approval. With four federal environmental reviews issued—and waiting on a fifth, Keystone XL is probably the most-scrutinized and reviewed pipeline project in American history.

The administration has been slower than maple syrup in a Wisconsin winter on Keystone XL, but also says it wants to streamline the federal permitting and review process for pipelines and other infrastructure.

Someone in the White House must have a sense of humor. A few days from now, I expect Jay Carney to pop up on The Daily Show and say, “Gotcha. We were checking to see if anyone was paying attention.”

The administration’s goal is to “achieve time savings of 50 percent in the federal permitting and review process.” Good, otherwise it would take eight years to approve Keystone XL. If the White House is serious about making it easier to build pipelines and other infrastructure project in America it’ will say, “Yes” to Keystone XL today.